Rosie runs along the path, both arms as wide as they can go, fingers brushing the bamboo leaves on either side. She likes the way the leaves flutter against her fingertips, like butterfly wings. This is one of her favourite paths, lined with bamboos whose trunks are as thick as her neck, as tall – […]

‘I can’t believe you kept it.’ It’s an ugly thing – a Year 8 woodwork project. Unevenly circular, almost egg-shaped where I over-planed to make tiny unnecessary adjustments, erroneous hour-increment markings where my chisel deviated around the grain. For some reason I painted a black cat on it – an eerie, wide-eyed, withered creature that […]

Miss Rosie Burns, 1960 Rosie Burns expected to be a famous pianist. She preferred sleek, black concert grand pianos, which showcased her petite prettiness and pearly arms. Much of her student grant was invested in hand creams. Her fair hair was pampered with camomile rinses. And she transformed curtaining remnants into swirling skirts and demure […]

Let me tell you about yourself. You were only a little unhinged. You just wanted a quiet life. Where could be quieter than a national park? A job in a national park. Trees. Lakes. Mountains. Tranquillity. There were the tourists, of course, but you learned to avoid them. Besides, there wouldn’t have been any jobs […]

The snow monkey groomed her baby into baldness. Pluck, pluck, pluck – as though every soft, honey-brown hair were a tick or a tangle. She only stopped when asleep or eating; and she always resumed as soon as she caught sight of the other monkeys’ neat babies. Pluck, pluck, pluck. Elise came to the wildlife […]

Annalisa Crawford lives in Cornwall, UK, with a good supply of moorland and beaches to keep her inspired. She lives with her husband, two sons and canine writing partner, Artoo. Annalisa writes dark, contemporary, character-driven stories, with a hint of the paranormal. She has had many short stories published online and in small-press journals, and […]

Carol Farrelly is a fiction writer. She is currently working on a collection of short stories and a novel. She holds a DPhil on Thomas Hardy’s fiction. She lived for one gloriously dreamy year in Italy and is in love with all things Venetian. Her novel, This Starling Flock, was shortlisted for the Lucy Cavendish […]

Julia Clayton studied Economics at the LSE and Ancient History at King’s College London. For twenty-three years she was Head of Classics at King George V College, Southport, a state-sector sixth-form college. In summer 2019 she decided to retire from teaching in order to concentrate on writing and research. Her short stories, often inspired by […]

Owen Schalk is a fiction writer and a student of literature and history. His primary field of study is postcolonial writing from Latin America and the Middle East. He lives in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and his family owns and operates a honey farm outside the city. Since he was a child, Owen has been interested in […]

Maggie Humm is an Emeritus Professor at the University of East London, UK, and a Woolf scholar, with a debut novel titled Talland House (She Writes Press, 2020). Talland House was shortlisted for the Impress and Fresher Fiction prizes (as Who Killed Mrs. Ramsay?), as well as the Retreat West and Eyelands prizes, and was […]